Growing up in California during the depression isn't easy for
eleven-year-old Rinko. She desperately wants to fit in and be like
everyone else, but instead she is ridiculed and made to feel different
because she is Japanese.
But when Aunt Waka comes to visit, and brings with her the old-fashioned
wisdom of Japan, she teaches Rinko the importance of her Japanese
heritage, and the value of her own strengths and dreams, in this warm
and touching story.